Of the five relievers to pitch for the Yankees on Wednesday night, only one managed to deliver a scoreless outing:
Slater, of course, is a veteran outfielder who was pressed into mop-up pitching duty in the ninth inning of the Yankees’ 11-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers.
It’s been that kind of week for the Yankees’ bullpen.
Full-time relievers Mark Leiter Jr., Camilo Doval, Tim Hill and Luke Weaver surrendered a combined nine runs over three innings, marking the second consecutive game in which the Yankees’ bullpen faltered.
In Tuesday night’s 12-2 loss, the Yankees’ relievers gave up 10 runs (nine earned) over three innings in another game that Detroit broke open in the late innings.
It’s the first time in the Yankees’ 123-year history that their bullpen has allowed nine or more runs in back-to-back games, according to Stathead’s Katie Sharp.
“Look, this is two days,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The bullpen has been closing out some really important games for us of late that’s let us go on a pretty good run. These are two nights in a row where we haven’t got it done, but we’re also behind, chasing a little bit. … I think through this, there’s been a lot of good.”
The Yankees’ bullpen posted a 3.80 ERA with an American League-best 12 holds from Aug. 24 to Sept. 7, a stretch in which the Yankees won 11 of 14 games. The bullpen came up particularly big in Saturday and Sunday’s narrow wins over the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays, totaling five shutout innings in relief of Luis Gil and Max Fried.
But overall, the Yankees’ bullpen entered Thursday with a 4.54 ERA this season, which ranks 24th among the 30 teams.
The six teams behind them — the Minnesota Twins, A’s, Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Angels, Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals — aren’t exactly playoff-bound.
Since the All-Star break, the Yankees’ bullpen has a 5.37 ERA, which ranks 27th in baseball.
“A bullpen ERA in short samples like that can be a little misleading, like when you have a handful of games where it really gets away and it gets blown up,” Boone said. “I feel like through this stretch of games, where over the last month we’ve started winning, we’ve closed out a lot of good games, too, with guys capable of shutting people down.”
The Yankees revamped their bullpen before the July 31 trade deadline by adding David Bednar and Doval to a group that already included Devin Williams and Weaver, giving them four veterans with closing experience.
They also traded for Jake Bird in an effort to deepen a bullpen that includes Fernando Cruz, Hill and Leiter as well.
But Bird quickly fizzled, allowing six runs in two innings over three appearances with the Yankees before being optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Wednesday’s struggles left Doval with a 6.59 ERA in 13.2 innings with the Yankees and Leiter with an 8.38 ERA since the All-Star break.
Williams, a two-time National League Reliever of the Year, entered Thursday with a 5.50 ERA in his first season with the Yankees, including a 7.23 ERA since the break.
And while Cruz has been steady this season, he was tagged for five runs and three walks without recording an out in Tuesday’s loss.
It’s a big difference for a Yankees team that finished no worse than sixth in bullpen ERA or that posted a mark no higher than 3.62 in any of the previous four seasons.
“I have all the confidence in everybody,” Yankees catcher Austin Wells said Wednesday.
“We’ve played good teams. You can’t get away with as [many] mistakes against teams like that. I definitely think that they’ve made some good swings on some good pitches, and also we’ve put ourselves in holes. I think we’re at our best when we’re getting ahead.”
Boone, too, voiced his confidence in the Yankees’ relievers, pointing to their “track record, stuff [and] who they are.”
But Boone also acknowledged the Yankees need to get some of their relievers back on track with less than three weeks remaining in the regular season.
“This is what we have,” Boone said. “I have a lot of confidence in their ability and their stuff, but we’ve got to bring it together. We haven’t done that consistently enough yet. Can we do it? We’re gonna find out, and that’s what we’re going to need to do if we’re going to make a big run at this.”
